Dancing in the Shadows: A Dramione Story
by Morglay
Summary: Hermione never went to Hogwarts. She is heading back from university for the holidays, to her home in the sleepy Dorset countryside, prepared for a summer filled with long walks and unplanned pub-trips with her best-friend, Jeremy. But when her elderly neighbour inexplicably disappears, she falls into a much darker world. And then she meets Draco.
1. Chapter 1 (Draco)

Summary: Hermione never went to Hogwarts. Having finished her first year at university, she is heading back to her home in the sleepy Dorset countryside, prepared for a summer filled with long walks and unplanned pub-trips with her best-friend, Jeremy. But when her elderly neighbour inexplicably disappears, Hermione falls into a much darker world: one of magic, and murder. And then she meets Draco. (Hermione: AU, Draco: post-HBP)

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own any of Rowling's glorious characters.

* * *

The mind is its own place, and in itself

Can make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n

\- Paradise Lost

* * *

 **Chapter One**

 _Draco_

The first thing that hit him was the smell. Even in his state, it was difficult to refrain from gagging. But as the sweet numbness of unconsciousness faded, he felt the hoarseness of his throat clawing at him. That was when he realised they had hung him upside down.

Not that he didn't deserve it.

But the silence was worse. He craved the faint humming of exhalation, the sound of saliva being sucked from one side of his mouth to the other, the popping of his ears as he swallowed. He wished them all, and loud enough to drown it out.

Yet, with each second, another vagueness returned. First, Dumbledore. Next, Voldemort. Then. Her.

It all flooded back into his suspended mind that very instant: everything he had done, anything he ever had thought, each elementary remnant of his former self remaining vigilant and demanding to be heard. The boy tried to claw the thoughts away with numb fingers, only to receive a sharp stab of paid ricochet through his body, and then all became clear. It had come back for him.

"You haven't the slightest idea what inconvenience you caused me," whispered the voice of the darkness. The words rattled through the boy's mind.

Pain returned to comfort him once more when the darkness grabbed a fistful of his hair, and raised it up to meet the enduring night.

"I want you," the darkness slurred, precise and distantly familiar, "to listen to me." Another time, another world. "They now have the a Horcrux in their possession, and we are on the cusp of war." His head was dropped suddenly, the muscles in the back of his neck tensing and relaxing as it oscillated in the darkness. "I need to know that you can kill them."

The pain came from his shin this time.

"Look at me," the darkness grunted, "when I am talking to you, Draco."

His eyes lifted to meet the darkness. "Lumos." The abyss was replaced with a cold gaze, steady and cool. Fathoming all the blood he could muster, Draco spat, watching contently as his artwork dribbled gracefully down the man's cheek.

"Father."

"That's quite a croak you've got there," Lucius muttered, swatting the scarlet spit from his face. "Can you kill them?" It wasn't executed as a question.

"If necessary."

"Thought as much." A terrible smile invaded Lucius' face. He sidled back against a wall of the chamber, his face still bathed in the gentle light of his wand. "But I didn't want to assume too much of you though, given your, ah-" Lucius paused and licked his lips, as if he were tasting the air in search of the right expression, then – with the same precise articulation – continued as if he hadn't even paused, murmuring "recent tendencies. This was all for your own good, you see."

"My own good?" A new tone echoed about the chamber, clear and cold.

"If it makes any difference at all, it wasn't on my instruction that you're here in the first place."

Draco lurched forward as his chains began to unfasten from the wall. "This was you. This was all you!" he enticed his chains further.

A cold laugh reverberated. "You thought daddy was here to rescue you? Oh, no. Wouldn't that make a cruel world?" He took quick, deliberate steps to close the gap between them. "I would have left you here to die," he said, tilting his head ever so gently sideways. "But, not everything is my decision to make, it would seem. Lord Voldemort still sees potential in you. Somehow."

His chains decisively lurched forward once more and clattered around Draco, now lying half broken on the floor. As he tried to rise, something pressed forcefully on his spine, and he returned to the ground with a thud.

"You are to work swiftly and silently, is that understood? I don't want any mishaps like the last time."

"There won't be any mishaps."

"Good." Lucius muttered, then was consumed by the darkness.

* * *

Draco had no idea how long he has been unconscious, or indeed any recollection of how he had come to be spread upon the sinewy expanse of stone, but awoke with a shiver to familiar darkness.

Had that really been his father? No, no. No. It was just another mind game of the darkness, forever taunting, never ending.

"Oh, and I almost forgot," came the voice from the darkness. Draco's eyes rose to meet the glow of wand light emanating from above. "I have a gift for you. You are looking a little worse for the wear, after all."

Draco was abruptly pulled to his feet, and found himself examining his father's crooked smile once more. A vial was thrust out to him. His smile twisted.

"Drink up."

There was no thinking twice about it. Draco did as his father had bid him. He reached for his vial with numb fingers, and once in his grasp he unthinkingly traced the intricate engraving.

"You remember." It was barely a whisper.

Draco nodded sullenly. He flicked the catch, and drank deeply; then the potion took ahold. He fell to the floor, the vial clattering on the stone beside him. As the convulsions heightened in magnitude, darkness came to meet him willingly as a friend. But, a far-off voice – devoid of emotion, as ever – pierced his silence.

"Take care, Draco."

* * *

A/N: And so it begins... I hope that this little chapter has been successful in grasping your attention! So, Draco is being tortured in the dungeons of Malfoy Manor for his failing to assassinate Dumbledore. But, as Voldemort still wants to test the boy, he has been given the task of retrieving a Horcrux that is known to be in the possession of Order-sympathisers. This should become more clear in later chapters, but if you think it needs additional clarification in this one then please do let me know!

I've really enjoyed writing the first few chapters of this, and I hope you enjoy reading them! Please read and review - I would love to know your thoughts, and really appreciate any feedback I can get!

Happy reading. :)

\- Morglay


	2. Chapter 2 (Hermione)

**Chapter Two**

 _Hermione_

The last light of day was swiftly fading through the ever-darkening windows of the university library, when Hermione decided it was about time she ventured back home. The summer term had commenced and ceased so swiftly, that she was certain most students would have no recollection of it at all. Save for their examinations, that is.

Remaining seated at her desk, Hermione began to neatly arrange the stack of tomes she had amassed throughout the day. For any other physics undergraduate, Hayek's Road to Serfdom and Rand's Atlas Shrugged may have looked somewhat out of place amongst the likes of Mandelbrot's The Misbehaviour of Markets and Carlson's biography of Tesla.

But Hermione's curious mind had been left unsatisfied by the Lightman's The Accidental Universe, and – upon hence falling into the previously unchartered realms of ethics – she had discovered that philosophy and physics were really not all that different. And even went rather well together. Besides, nobody could blame her for desiring to temporarily set aside physics textbooks after all the mental acrobatics this year had demanded.

Shuffling out of her seat, Hermione released the tension from six-hours-worth of sitting motionless by giving her neck a gentle crack. Then, after slinging her Ledbrook gym bag over her shoulder, she gathered the books in her arms, and made her way towards the stairwell.

Almost four hours later, the train was approaching her stop. Face pressed absentmindedly against the glass of the window; Hermione resolved never to permit herself to travel so late again. Though the sky was much clearer here, since there wasn't so much light pollution as up at university, she failed to take advantage of it. For once, Hermione was not stargazing. She was drifting in and out of consciousness.

"We are now approaching Tisbury." The sharp, stale female voice of the train announcement shook Hermione from her drowsy state. She slinked past the elderly lady asleep in the seat beside her, and gently tugged her luggage free from the rack.

As the train slowed to a standstill, Hermione spotted her brother waiting for her on the platform. Will waved the train in as it moved past him, his bright blue eyes glistening in the moonlight as he searched the carriages for sight of his sister.

Hermione stepped out of the train into the still night. Seconds later, she was ambushed by Will's warm embrace.

"Steady on," Hermione murmured, still somewhat sleepily. "If you were any more forceful, you'd have landed us both on the line."

Will smiled. "Come on," he said, picking up Hermione's gym bag in one hand, and throwing his other arm over her shoulder. "Let's get home."

Once they had made their way to Will's weathered Audi, Hermione wasted no time in acquainting herself with the car's passenger window.

"…Don't you think?" Will said, seemingly continuing a sentence. He glanced to his left, observing Hermione pressed semi-consciously against her window. "H, are you even listening to me?"

"Mmm," she murmured, slightly irritated at having been woken again. "Mrs Hopton's nieces."

"French nieces." Will corrected, smiling inwardly to himself. "They arrived this evening." The road was winding to and fro, all the while bathed in moonlight. He looked back to it. "Riley and Aline."

"They're pretty names," Hermione sleepily interjected.

"They're pretty girls," Will replied, far more energetically. "I mean, I know she must be rather prejudiced – them being her nieces and everything – but the way she spoke about them. She seemed pretty definite." He nodded to himself. "All beautiful. All in an entirely different way."

"So they should be posing for Vogue," Hermione replied dryly, her head remaining fixed against the car window.

Her brother's interest in girls had been a rather recent development. Sure, for the past two years, Will had developed an interest in fashion that far surpassed her own, but it was only really in the last few months that he'd developed a real reputation. Somehow, her Xbox-transfixed, Star Wars obsessed, ever so slightly geeky younger brother who shared her passion for the starts has been transformed into a trendy and outgoing young man, who always had a different young lady on his arm.

"You ought to go see her," Will said, interrupting Hermione's train of thought. "Say hello. She idolises you, you know."

Hermione smiled, at last lifting her head from the car window. "And you really ought to stop befriending old ladies with beautiful nieces. Otherwise, your lovelies will begin thinking you're not entirely selfless."

Will cleared his throat. "It's a very clear night. View should be good."

"You know as well as I do, August's the best month for stargazing." Hermione said, satisfactorily slipping back into her previous position against the window.

"Look," Will said, a sudden urgency in his voice. "A shooting star! Make a wish."

Hermione flicked up her eyes. She didn't have the heart to tell Will it was only a satellite.

If I were to make a wish, she thought, which obviously I'm not. Because that would be horoscope-esque. And stupid. But if I were, it would be for some excitement around here.

The road bent gently, snaking among the moonlit Dorset hills, as Hermione drifted into her own darkness.

* * *

 **A/N** : So now you've met AU Hermione, who is reading Physics at university, and her younger brother, Will. Both completely unaware that the wizarding world exists.

Please read and review! As always, I love to know your thoughts.

Happy reading. :)

\- Morglay


	3. Chapter 3 (Aline)

**Chapter Three**

 _Aline_

Aline stared up at the brilliant point of light moving across the night sky. It was a satellite, she knew. Where she came from, nobody was in the habit of wishing on stars, but this satellite was a fellow wanderer this night. As Aline tracked its course, she felt a concentration of hope rise inside her. Almost a wish.

It had been hours since she'd last heard the faintest sound of a car. And there was an emptiness to the night, far more eerie than any she had experienced anywhere in the wizarding world. It was too quiet.

They weren't off to the most promising start, Aline had to admit. They had come into some trouble when trying to navigate Waterloo station, which was - predictably - swarming with Muggles, and so missed their train.

Riley had been positively fuming by that point.

Aline had taken just a little too long trying to squeeze as many of her possessions as she could into the tiny Muggle bag that Riley had insisted she take. So it really was her fault that they missed their train from London. And Riley's angry disposition wasn't much help when they to work out how they could possibly buy a new set of tickets, the Muggle way. And then, once they had finally arrived at Tisbury, Aunt Betty was nowhere to be seen.

"Where is she?" Riley hissed, shaking Aline from her daze.

"I don't know," Aline replied, shrugging her cardigan up further as the wind licked her hair. "Maybe we should apparate."

"No," Riley said, forcefully, turning to face her sister. "Absolutely not. No magic, remember." Her voice quieted. "We need to live like muggles, now. It's safer."

"She has probably forgotten we're coming," said Aline, to nobody in particular.

As if to echo her words, the wind riled up, causing both of the girls' cardigans to billow. The night grew colder.

After what seemed a lifetime, Riley spoke once more. "We're going to have to walk." Eyebrows knitted together, she slung her bag over her shoulder and began to make for the edge of the carpark. Sighing deeply, Aline followed suit, walking ever so slightly lopsided from the weight of her bag.

Aline had just felt herself mind drifting off as her body set into a walking rhythm when she heard a pronounced "Shit". She looked up to to see Riley with her right hand pressed against a marker on a signpost. As she caught her sister up, the reason for Riley's exasperation became clear: they had another 18 miles to go. She groaned inwardly.

"Just this once." The abruptness of Riley's words startled her. It was most unlike her sister to change her mind once it was made up, and even more out of character now that they had something to hide. Indeed, Aline was still half in shock when Riley actually produced her wand. Not only that Riley hadn't actually discarded her wand, as she had instructed Aline to do, but that they were actually going to apparate. From what few conversations they'd had about it, Aline had gathered it wasn't exactly one of her sister's favourite things to do.

Aline grabbed ahold of Riley's outstretched arm, and watch her sister focus. She herself was not yet old enough to have an apparition license of her own, but even had Aline been seventeen, she wasn't convinced she would want to try. It took an awful lot of concentration, and with her attention span she'd most likely end up spliced.

She felt herself turning with Riley, and all of a sudden it was as if she was falling though nothingness, a weightless existence. But it was far from pleasant. She felt her cheeks being riled, her forehead straining, and every fibre of her being oscillating. Aline was happy when the ground rose up to meet her with a thud.

As Riley cleared her throat, Aline pushed herself at first up onto her knees and then back onto her feet, dusting off the dry mud from her jeans. She looked up. They were standing in the middle of a country lane. To their left, beyond the hedgerow, was a large expanse of woodland. To their right, beside a small coppice, was a series of detached cottages.

"Looks like we're here," Riley sighed.

Aline nodded, and started forward, carrying her bag by hand instead of slinging it over her shoulder. It had left her muscles achy. She made for the cottage furthest from them, next to the coppice, and pushed gently on the quaint door.

"Muggle houses have locks, Al-" Riley began, but the door swung open to reveal a darkened hallway.

"How… Bizarre?" Aline whispered, quizzically.

The girls stepped inside.

"Let's shut the door." Riley pushed it, until she heard the gentle click of the latch. Curious, she thought.

"Aunt Betty?" Aline called out, walking forwards with her arms outstretched. She reached a room, and was pleasantly surprised to find it flooded with moonlight. "Oh thank Merlin, I've found the kitchen. I'm starving." She rattled through the cupboards, pulling out some mouldy bread and tinned beans.

Riley was busy patting the wall, searching for a switch. She flicked it. Nothing. Bloody Muggles, she thought.

"Nothing's working." Riley called out. "I'm going to try find the fuse box."

She kept patting her way down the hallway in search for the staircase. Muggle houses always have cupboards under the stairs, she thought. When Riley's hand slipped into nothingness, causing her to fall forward, she reasoned that she'd found the staircase, at least. Backing up a little, and moving her hand a little lower in her sweeping movements against the wall, she located a handle.

Aline was still searching through the cupboards for semi-appetising food when the lights flicked on.

There was a scream.

Rushing from the kitchen, Aline found Riley frozen pale with shock, eyes widened in the dim cupboard light. Aline followed her gaze, then herself struggled to breathe.

Pinned up with a broom in the far corner of the cupboard, was Aunt Betty.

* * *

 **A/N** : This was just a little introduction to two original characters who are going to play a big role in this story. But next chapter: Draco.

As always, please read and review! 3

Happy reading. :)

\- Morglay


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